'Suspicious toilet' provokes Maryland bomb scare

Courthouse crapper armed with 'electronic device'

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A "suspicious toilet" left outside a government building yesterday provoked a full-scale bomb alert in Towson, Maryland.

A security guard spotted the white crapper dumped outside the Old Courthouse at around 8am, and called in the cops. According to the Towson Times, the porcelain loo was packed with "some type of electronic device, along with a cellphone and some notes" and decorated with "a scrap of newspaper, as well as a piece of cardboard with a message written on it".

Baltimore County Police Department spokesman Lieutenant Robert McCullough explained: “The suspect in this case clearly left the items in such a fashion that a reasonable person would suspect it’s a dangerous device.”

Cue bomb squad intervention, with a sniffer dog and remote-controlled robot first checking out the suspect dunny before a human operative moved in to confirm the bog wasn't going to go bang.

McCullough said: “Our hazardous device team, working with police investigators, investigated the situation and found that there was no danger.”

Police later confirmed that they have a suspect, and the Towson Times reckons it flushed him out. The paper says one of the notes attached to the toilet read: "We, the undersigned, are supporters of Duane Gerald Davis (Shorty)."

It elaborates: "The note identified Davis as a 'well respected' area resident, calling on the city of Zion, Illinois, to 'conduct a complete and impartial investigation' into Davis' son's death in 2006."

A quick scoot down to Facebook pinpointed one Duane G Davis – a "Baltimore resident originally from Zion and the owner of Shorty's Underground Pit Beef Shack in Upperco".